China’s Cancerous Shampoo Scare

It’s a bit of a slow Monday on the nets, so we have to thank our friend—one of those guys who knows way more about China than the rest of us—for turning us onto a recent controversy over there that we’d somehow missed.

You see last month, the discovery that China’s BaWang Shampoo contained the carcinogen 1,4-dioxane sent the company’s stock tumbling. Here’s the thing though:

The amount of 1,4-dioxane in BaWang (10 parts per million) is pretty much on par, if not lower than, the levels discovered in products over here. Kudos for the public outrage, but it’s definitely not a China-only story.

This, however, may be: After coming under fire, the company spokesperson finally broke his silence on the subject. According to the Shangaiist this is what Jackie Chan had to say: “I have always been very careful with what products I endorse. But there are some media who are specifically gunning for me and a few other artistes, I am not sure why, as though it is better that we all just died.”

Either something got lost in translation here, or this is the oddest slash funniest attempt at media damage control we’ve ever seen. Anybody want to guess which?